With the HD2's pretty short battery life compared to my previous HTC phones, and also as I was a bit bored , I decided to have a look at how much the different systems drain in the HD2, and did some tests.
So for anyone interested, here are the results:
Base consumptions: (pick the one that suits your situation)
Standby, phone on, WIFI+BT off, no connections active: 5mA
Processor running idle, screen off, connections as above: 55mA
100% CPU usage (Coreplayer benchmark), connections as above: 315mA
USB connected, connections as above: 125mA
Additions: (add this to the base one depending on what you have on)
Connections:
BT on, idle: +1mA
Wifi on, idle: +5mA BUT!! If you enable wifi during standby (with BsB Tweaks or the WifiNoStandby CAB), the processor does NOT go to standby
anymore, so the base needs to be the 55mA above!
Connected to EDGE, idle: not measureable
Connected to 3G, idle: +4mA
Beware those 2 will occasionally and unpredictably send data every now and then, so this doesn't necessarily mean much.
BT transfer (file copy through ActiveSync, 120kB/s, CPU usage ~2%): +80mA
Wifi transfer (file copy with Wifi Remote access, 1MB/s, CPU usage ~3%): +200mA
EDGE/3G transfer: Pretty impossible to measure due to so many variables, but can be extreme (total current consumptions of 850-1150mA, so very approximative 500-800mA draw from the data connection during page loads are common!), and leads to most of the energy draw when using the net a lot. EDGE uses more power than 3G, consumption is higher when network coverage is lower, bad network throughput or congestion also mean lots of retries/overhead and less effective data transfer, using power for a longer time until the data is finally there.
Memory access (large file transfer):
Internal read/write through ActiveSync (speeds 2.5 / 2.1 MB/s respectively): +20mA / +130mA
Card read/write through ActiveSync (speeds 3.2 / 2.7MB/s respectively): +25mA / +40mA
Card read/write in USB disk mode (speeds 7.5 / 5MB/s respectively): +40mA / +45mA
Backlight:
10%: +65mA
20%: +78mA
30%: +90mA
40%: +105mA
50%: +121mA
60%: +136mA
70%: +154mA
80%: +170mA
90%: +190mA
100%:+210mA
GPS:
+95mA
Flashlight (with HTC Flashlight):
Level 1: +32mA
Level 2 (same as camera flash on): +107mA
Level 3 (same as camera "bright flash during shot"): +530mA
And remember the battery capacity: 1230mAh
So with this you can calculate your battery life for various activities. For example:
- Playing a video with full backlight: Let's say the video is well encoded (30% CPU use, for example 720x400 1Mbps DivX), that's about 150mA base, + 210mA backlight = 360mA, resulting in about 3h20 battery life.
- Same at night with only 40% backlight: Life goes up to about 5h!
- Wifi during standby for an 8h night, or a program that somehow prevents the phone from entering standby: 60mA or 55mA respectively, draining about 40% of the battery during that time.
- GPS program, with 70% backlight: Let's assume 150mA for the processor as it has some work to do, 90mA for the GPS, 154mA for the backlight = 394mA, or 3 hours.
- Music through wired headphones, screen off: the 55mA base plus a little 5mA as MP3 decoding is nothing for the CPU = 60mA or 20h.
- Same with a BT headset, with about half the BT bandwidth: 60+40 = 100mA or 12h
etc.
Charging
[EDIT 14.04.10]
This is now a dedicated section as I did some more thorough charging tests.
So, as some of you might know, the HD2 has 2 charging "modes".
- One is USB, that is used if the phone is connected to a PC, or an unknown device. In this mode, the current the HD2 will draw from the port/charger is limited to approx. 470mA, to stay within the maximum of 500mA a USB port can supply.
- The other is "dedicated charger", which is recognised on the original HTC charger (and some others, it's becoming a standard for a "dedicated charging USB port") by shorting of the 2 data pins of the USB connector in the charger.
USB charge
Important to know, during USB charge, the phone will NOT go to sleep, as it's supposed to be connected to a PC, and be running either ActiveSync, Disk drive mode, or modem, and in all 3 cases would be expected not to shutdown. So not only the current supplied to the HD2 is low, but the phone draws some of it for itself, leaving very little for actual charge - so expect loooong charge times.
USB charge with screen on (backlight dimmed, 10%): 285mA
USB charge with screen off (standby): 345mA (which shows the processor still runs and draws the "base USB" current)
Dedicated charger
When used with a charger that has the 2 USB data pins shorted, such as the original charger, the HD2 will draw a current that is proportional to the voltage on the USB power lines. To measure this I have used the original supplied USB cable, a variable regulated power supply, USB socket (with data pins shorted), and 2 meters for voltage/current. Voltages are measured at the "PC" end of the USB cable, so not taking account of losses in the USB cable. Will talk more about this later on.
Current vs Voltage diagrams are attached. Charge current is proportional to voltage, linearly until it reaches the max charge current, approx 830mA. This was measured so that the only draw is charge. If the phone is turned on while at max charge current, it will draw extra, until it reaches about 980mA, and will then stop to respect the 1A rating of the stock charger.
Now, to the influence of USB cables. I initially had some trouble with inconsistant numbers, phone only drawing 670mA from the stock charger, i.e matching neither the ~350mA from USB, or ~830mA from stock charger in "normal" condition. Turns out that to make it more convenient on my workplace I was using an USB extension between charger and HD2 cable. It was a $2 extension I bought on Dealextreme. Removing it solved the problem... and after making those measurements I poked with it again. Turns out that at 1A current, the voltage drop in the extension (which by the way isn't longer than the HD2's USB cable) was 1.8V! Yep, nearly 2 Ohms for a 1.5m extension! Couldn't believe it.
I have a cheap Chinese microUSB cable that wasn't as bad,but still significantly more resistive than the stock one, hence me noting I used the stock cable for my tests. So, quality of the cables, extensions, adapters IS important! Note the phone correctly reaches full charge current a little bit under the 5V USB spec, so everything is well tuned.
Now, important to know, Most 3rd party chargers will not have the 2 USB data pins shorted, and will thus result in the same behavior as mentioned under USB charge, the processor will also be running continuously drawing the "base USB" current.
It is often possible to modify 3rd party chargers by opening them and shorting the pins, speeding up charge. The voltage/current curve behavior is actually helping there, because thanks to it if the charger is overloaded its voltage will most likely fall a bit, and the HD2 will thus draw less and find a nice balance point. This DOES NOT mean there's no possiblilty of damaging the charger, but all 3 I modified did well. One that was really weak resulted in not much more current being drawn after the mod than before (i.e voltage fell very low, approx. 4.4V), however the gain from not having the processor running like in USB mode still sped up charge a little.
Thank you, that is one useful chunk of comprehensive information
Could you please explain the exact measuring method for these tests?
40% backlight at night is a tough example tho, Lumos on my device is set to 10% for 0 sensor value, and only because I can't set it to lower than 10%... nice to know battery drain goes up twice from 10% to 60%!
Also, 100% is usually really necessary under direct sunlight, in a normal lit room probably 40% backlight is more than enough to watch a video... all in all, with your superinteresting info, the battery doesn't look like lasting "too short" now, but more or less "the right amount considering the battery capacity".
My iPaq 210 has a 2200mAh battery, just to make a comparison... that's why I could go for 8 hrs during some bus trips while watching tv series, and I just needed to swap battery and used a little of the second one.
What's your estimate of the drain caused by activating push email? I've recently been doing some rather crude experiments myself, and one provisional conclusion is that push email on a hotmail account uses a lot more battery than push email on an Exchange server.
Excellent stuff, you are to be congratulated.
I have a long held theory and I wonder if you are in a position to to test it?
I believe that battery consumption is greatly increased when an app is run from mem card and would be intrigued to see a comparison between an install to this as opposed to phone mem.
Any chance?
Battery levels
I found that power consumption of the battery got even worse after I went to Rom 1.66.707.1. However, after a few days, I let it run all the way out, switched back on, it ran out after a few minutes. Then after an overnight charge I found the battery (on standby) only went down by about 10 -12 % in 24hrs. I'm hoping this performance will continue.
What did you use for the testing?
pa49 said:
Excellent stuff, you are to be congratulated.
I have a long held theory and I wonder if you are in a position to to test it?
I believe that battery consumption is greatly increased when an app is run from mem card and would be intrigued to see a comparison between an install to this as opposed to phone mem.
Any chance?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That would be reasonable as reading from an external media will need energy to access its contents... still, once the app files have been loaded into the device's RAM, it shouldn't matter much
You could also test by comparing:
1) copy say 30mb from one location to another of the internal mem
2) copy from microsd to microsd
3) copy from mem to microsd
4) copy from microsd to mem
ephestione said:
Could you please explain the exact measuring method for these tests?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Simply using the built-in current sensor, getting the reads from AEBPlus battery information screen, and methodically turning things on/off once the others are evaluated and can be subtracted from the total reading.
ephestione said:
40% backlight at night is a tough example tho, Lumos on my device is set to 10% for 0 sensor value, and only because I can't set it to lower than 10%...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really? You should force the backlight off then
I love bright images myself, so even in my bed in total darkness if I watch a video or photos I'll force 100% backlight I have Lumos set to force 100% for Coreplayer, Resco Photo manager and HTC album
Of course not for browsing or just messing around, in that case it's 20% for me
Shasarak said:
What's your estimate of the drain caused by activating push email? I've recently been doing some rather crude experiments myself, and one provisional conclusion is that push email on a hotmail account uses a lot more battery than push email on an Exchange server.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's one thing I'd have no idea about... I've never used push email at all. And that's "standby usage", so hard to evaluate, as you never know when it kicks in.
Measuring that would need to be done on a long time. I'd say to leave your phone one night with push email off, one night with Exchange only, and one night with hotmail only, and then check the difference, preferably with a battery at about 80% charge at the start (mine seems to fall from 100% to 90% in a few minutes before becoming more regular, so I'd say the top of the scale isn't that reliable).
And I should really try push email once, that would be nice, but I *think* I have no provider that can do it for me... well I have a gmail account I never use, I should try to see if I can have it check my usual 3 mail accounts, aggregate and push... never really looked into that stuff.
pa49 said:
Excellent stuff, you are to be congratulated.
I have a long held theory and I wonder if you are in a position to to test it?
I believe that battery consumption is greatly increased when an app is run from mem card and would be intrigued to see a comparison between an install to this as opposed to phone mem.
Any chance?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks
Well I'd tend to refute that theory, because when I tested the BT and Wifi in use I tried read from internal memory, write to internal, read from card and write to card, and all 4 were identical. I should have mentioned it indeed, but I was mostly interested to seeing if reads (wifi/BT "sending") and writes (wifi/BT "receiving") would have an influence on consumption, which wasn't the case, as well as whether the throughput was different, which wasn't the case either.
But I've done a few more tests, see the updated first post
One intersting thing is firstly that when the HD2 is connected to USB, the current draw grows significantly, so I've made a new "base consumption".
Next, the card is actually faster than the internal memory both in reads and in writes, tested both through activesync for consistency. Writing to the internal memory eats a LOT more than writing to the card. Reading from the card eats a little more than reading from internal memory, probably evens out as the reads are shorter due to faster transfer rate.
I've added some charging tests as well. Apparently, even if the phone "disconnects" from USB when turned off, the processor still runs and uses about the "USB connected" base current.
kilrah said:
Simply using the built-in current sensor, getting the reads from AEBPlus battery information screen, and methodically turning things on/off once the others are evaluated and can be subtracted from the total reading.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
d'oh aebplus has a battery information screen, checking it right away In that case you'd have to take into consideration aebplus' current absorption anyway... which is not measurable as you cannot check the current intake of aebplus without aebplus being running
I have the cab on the sd already, but didn't install if after noticing that didn't work for button assignments with later versions of the rom... does it work for you on that side? I used the program all the time on my previous ipaq because it was oh so useful but never got around to notice it had a battery info subsection.
Really? You should force the backlight off then
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wouldn't have much sense doing it in the dark would it (admitting it's possible altogether on the HD2!)
But I actually used my oooold casio cassiopeia, about 7 years ago, with backlight turned off, while reading ebooks with speed reader plus during train trips, as the neon lights created a reflection good enough on the display so that I didn't need backlight...
in the end, the backlight died altogether and until I bought a new device, I managed to use it with light turned off
A flashing LED (incoming SMS warning, e.g.) seems to add consumption of 1-3mA.
Running FlexMail in background with a push service (IMAP IDLE) adds up to 30mA.
ephestione said:
does it work for you on that side?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AEBPlus works fine for me yes... but I don't have a "latest version" ROM AFAIK. I don't like WM6.5.x new softkey arrangement, so I'm staying with 6.5.
Anyway more about Push, I configured that through gmail yesterday, and it works just fine. I left it on during the night, and this morning I had lost 8% battery. So it's pretty much negligible. I received 2 e-mails during the night and was on 3G network.
this is a nice topic! i am interested in how much extra it uses when you are playing a MP3 with the build in HTC app?
maybe it would be a nice idea to make a program that outputs results like you pasted fast and easy (something like a benchmark app) so we can test different rom's fast? too bad i cant write anything otherwise i would try..
OK, seems MP3 uses 120mA screen off, both with Sense player and Coreplayer, so:
Processor running idle, screen off base + 65mA
But it seems to make some pretty big "jumps" once in a while. Maybe they both decode ior fetch from memory by "batches"...
my test,
HD2 rom 1.66
with BT on and BT off (configured but no connection to headset) difference in consumption is 60mA .!
BT is draining my HD2 .!
kilrah said:
OK, seems MP3 uses 120mA screen off, both with Sense player and Coreplayer, so:
Processor running idle, screen off base + 65mA
But it seems to make some pretty big "jumps" once in a while. Maybe they both decode ior fetch from memory by "batches"...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, I can't confirm the BT issue. Did you observe over a long period of time? The "quiet" current for MP3 I seem to get is 185mA with screen on and backlight at 10%, but sometimes it will climb to 280-320mA for a moment and go down again, both with BT on and off. With screen off for a while it seems to stabilise at the "quiet" level.
BTW, it seems that Advanced task manager isn't reporting CPU usage levels properly. Does someone know of a CPU monitor that works correclty on the HD2?
Yup. review over multiple 6 mins. all baseline(3g/brightness) setting the same. resetting each time for off on BT.
kilrah said:
OK, I can't confirm the BT issue. Did you observe over a long period of time? The "quiet" current for MP3 I seem to get is 185mA with screen on and backlight at 10%, but sometimes it will climb to 280-320mA for a moment and go down again, both with BT on and off. With screen off for a while it seems to stabilise at the "quiet" level.
BTW, it seems that Advanced task manager isn't reporting CPU usage levels properly. Does someone know of a CPU monitor that works correclty on the HD2?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Another consideration:
Data connection sucks power when used actively. Badly. As mentioned in the OP I haven't made comprehensive tests due to low monthly allowance, but I've had a look during normal use.
I'm pretty regularly doing 1hr train rides, during which I will be listnening to music , and browse the net at the same time. It's usually bright, so backlight will probably be at 70%. Signal is relatively low most of the time, on EDGE, inbetween small towns. When I'm on a "static" page (reading an already loaded page), current drain varies between 250 and 350mA.
But while loading a page, it will easily soar to 800mA+. Considering it takes 30-60 seconds to read a page, 20 to load a new one, and repeat... you can quickly see that this kind of usage leads to serious drain... in less than 2 hours the battery would be dead.
So be aware of how much power data connection will use. It's directly proportional to the amount of transferred data, and the worse the reception the more power it uses.
I should try using opera mini again, like I was always doing on my Kaiser. I never noticed excessive drain with it, but opera mini easily divides traffic by a factor of 10...
Just wanted to report that the new version of the superuseful BattClock has now a builtin battery current output, even if it's not really update once per second... seems more like one every 10 seconds.
I get ~240mA playing fullscreen stretched Frasier in lowest backlight (but that's with the keypad leds turned on all the time, I don't know why they don't go off, and I don't have keypadledcontrol installed... so that's a problem), and I get a total 630mA with HTC flashlight at maximum.
Good news! Bye bye Batti
Normal about the refresh time, the sensor only updates every 20 secs or so.
Some new considerations I posted somewhere else but should have put here.
After some time the HD2 seems to have better battery life, but usually it's not your battery lasting longer, it's just you not spending your day playing with the thing anymore.
It's always the same thing, the more a device can do, the more you do with it. On my first 1h train journeys after getting my HD2, I was able to kill 50% battery in 1hr. My first thought was "wow, with my Kaiser I would only use like 15%!!"
But then I took a second thought. I used 50%, but I was browsing the web, in bad reception areas, while listening to music the whole time. With my Kaiser, I'd put music on, check 3 webpages, then put it on the tray with just MSN connected and just pick it up to read/type a message once in a while.
On a next trip, I "forced myself" to do the same with the HD2. Just checked the news for 5 mins, then only listened to music and picked up msn once in a while, plus an unexpected 10min phone call. Guess what? I've only used 20% battery during the trip this time
The "problem" is that browsing with the Kaiser was just painful, so I'd just check the news and put it away. On the HD2 it's so comfortable I forget it and just spend my whole trip browsing heavy pages, which obviously kills battery in no time...
exactly my thoughts and findings
Related
Talk: 3.00 hours (180 minutes)
Standby: 180 hours (7.5 days)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is the advertised battery life correct ... because i cant seem to get anywhere close to the standby stated hours. Is standby mode equal to shutting off your magician [ie. red button on right side]?
Anyways, with the screen on, but the backlight off, i can only get roughly 5-6 according to my battery indicator [battery pack pro]. Its even less if i use the pocket pc to play music
Just wondering if this is the norm, or should I try to get a new battery? Any tips to conserve precious battery life ... aside from dimming backlights?[/quote]
standy times are always absolute BS, no matter what phone they're plastered to :wink:
mine gets about 2 days use with few calls, about an hr of mp3s and perhaps an episode of the chaser's war on everything.
toomuchdogfur said:
mine gets about 2 days use with few calls, about an hr of mp3s and perhaps an episode of the chaser's war on everything.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
damn, thats awesome.
(1) You just using the main battery? or do you also use the backup internal battery as well?
(2) How frequently are you charging? I mean, do you wait till you battery is low after 2 days to charge? or are you charging it every so often during those 2 days of use?
(3) What kind of battery indicator software or program are you using [if not the one already installed in settings/system/battery]?
(4) Do you leave your screen off or on when you arent using it?
...mine: 9 hrs. wmplayer playing with screen off and 1½ hrs internet browsing; standby? why should i?
Now i bought a 2400 mAh battery instead off 1200 and indeed it's doubled now...
(1) which backup internal battery?
(2) i'm charching as soon as it's below 10%
(3) i use batterymemstatus including overclock
(4) i prefer shutting off the screen especially to prevent touching any button by accident...
dream_sequence said:
toomuchdogfur said:
mine gets about 2 days use with few calls, about an hr of mp3s and perhaps an episode of the chaser's war on everything.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
damn, thats awesome.
(1) You just using the main battery? or do you also use the backup internal battery as well?
(2) How frequently are you charging? I mean, do you wait till you battery is low after 2 days to charge? or are you charging it every so often during those 2 days of use?
(3) What kind of battery indicator software or program are you using [if not the one already installed in settings/system/battery]?
(4) Do you leave your screen off or on when you arent using it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1: Just the main battery, the standard 1200mAH that comes with the Mini. btw you can't actually 'use' the internal backup battery - thats just there to prevent the data in your main memory from being wiped out if your main battery goes dry!
2: I usually charge when the battery drops below 20% (ie. the first 'low battery' warning) as if it drops below 10% then certain functions are disabled (accessing your SD card for example )
3: Resco Today Plugin, comes bundled with Resco Explorer. It uses the built-in battery monitor anyway, like most today screen battery monitor plugins.
4: Off. Backlight switches off after 30s of inactivity, screen off after 3 minutes, but I usually press the power button before I slip it back into my pocket.
I use PocketMusic for mp3s, which switches the screen off automatically after 30s (but still keeps playing!), and TCPMP for video - my videos are all encoded in XviD, which requires significantly less processing power than WMV (in TCPMP anyway) while keeping a good compression ratio, meaning less battery drain.
By the way! Make sure that in Settings > Connections > Beam that your PPC isn't set to recieve incoming beams... that can have a noticeable effect on battery life.
This weekend, when my battery got below the 25% mark after a long time of keeping it always between 40 and 100%, I noticed that my device suddenly went black while playing Sudoku.
After 1 minute I could switch it back on, presenting the boot screen. No data was lost. However, as soon as it gets to log on to the cell network, it would shut off again. I had to charge it to at least 30% to be able to get a cell connection again.
Would this be a sign of a dying battery?
Unfortunately yes, it's the start of the death spiral. :?
Mine was worst; my Mini would shut off suddenly at around the 40% level. Upon closer examination of the battery it appears a little bloated in the centre, so I guess all that accumulated heat from charging did kill my battery eventually.
I changed a new battery a few months back and could now go as low as 3% before the device shuts off.
Re: Battery Life - How long? Tips to conserve precious power
Krinkiespijer said:
Now i bought a 2400 mAh battery instead off 1200 and indeed it's doubled now...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey Krinkiespijer,
Where did you get hold of the 2400 mAh battery? Are they expensive?
Cheers,
James
I would bet ebay. ebay.com.au used to be swarming with 2400mAH batteries but they seem to have disappeared .
They are a bit pricey, but I still see a couple of them in ebay. But remember that they're quite large and your Magician wont fit into the stock case.
Also, try tools such as Pocket Hack Master which allow you to underclock the CPU, consuming less power. You can also use em to set CPU speed based on process usage.
Am I the only one who finds it apalling?
Today my battery was on red warning by 1 o'clock.
I have 'unlimited' (FUP 1Gb) data and was just doing things - the hone can do so much - but my battery only lasts hours - not the full day I need
Love my Ameo - hate the keyboard (compared to the Universal) and the battery life!
Confucious said:
Am I the only one who finds it apalling?
Today my battery was on red warning by 1 o'clock.
I have 'unlimited' (FUP 1Gb) data and was just doing things - the hone can do so much - but my battery only lasts hours - not the full day I need
Love my Ameo - hate the keyboard (compared to the Universal) and the battery life!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have never gotten near exhausting the battery before I am exhausted -- that is 12-15 hour work days. The only time I got close was when I did several presentations using TV-out and forgot my AC power adapter. Right now my battery stands at 60%; it's nearly 7:00p local time and my day started at 4:30a. Didn't do much other than e-mail and phone, but still I have been really pleased with battery life.
As to the keybd, based on what some posted, I was thinking I might go sans keyboard using a soft keyboard like tengo or resco keyboard. In fact the keyboard hasn't bothered me at all. It nicely springs into place when I open the case and types at an OK level.
My biggest complaints are actually the lack of buttons for quick launch... along with the little joystick thingy, which I don't particularly love. The D-Pad on my Wizard seemed more usable. In these two respects my Wizard was easier to navigate. Otherwise, I'm loving the Advantage.
Me too, but ...
I have found mixed results. Some days the battery seems to nosedive and some days when I am expecting trouble its not too bad.
I believe bluetooth really drains the battery. Also when the unit is connected via activesync even though I am using a 'mains powered' dual USB synch cable it hardly seems to charge at all.
However when connected via activesync I use "Screenoff" and this helps a lot.
re keyboard - nothing to be said I just carry the device with me and use TenGO as an SIPS.
HOWEVER while reporting a bug to TenGO (very good people btw) I powered up my old Universal and remembered the old screen size and memory for installed programs - Advantage I love you after all!
Am I the only one who loves the joystick or what? Id take it any day over the D-Pads, dpads are well and good but I find the joystick alot more usable.
As for battery life ive found the biggest drain (as would be expected) is the brightness of the LCD screen. Using default settings the battery life was quite solid (2 days at least, with moderate useage and a fair bit of HSDPA'ing), however to compensate for the poor screen protector that came with it which I applied, I ratcheted up the brightness and sure enough have had to charge it every night since. Which is no big deal for me, but on a day when I have to use VGA out and BT I can see it struggling to make a full day on the highest brightness settings.
TenGo works quite well and the screen is large enough to use VGA SIPs with your finger even, but I still dont mind the hardware keyboard just takes a lil getting use too.
Using any data connection uses a bit more battery than a GSM phone conversation. So if we get 5-6 hours of GSM, then we should get about 4-5 hours of 3G and GPRS/Edge data usage.
However, I have seen that turning down the brightness to 3 steps above the lowest setting yields me a good 6 hours of Edge use. This setting works well indoors or in lower sun light conditions only.
My biggest issue with the device is that it reflects everything. The glare is horrible in high light conditions, almost making it unusable while outside on the street.
Using bluetooth isn't so bad. I've seen it might drain 10% of your battery over a period of 24 hours with no usage except keeping it on.
So, no, I don't find any strange battery patterns with my U1000, at least not yet.
I have push mail enabled so the 3g connection is always on and working. I often have bluetooth on. I still usually get pretty much a full working day without coming close to the battery dying.
However, I do keep the screen on the lowest backlight setting (i.e. one stop away from the end of the scale) and the screen turns itself off after 2 mins.
Try this while charging...
Ive found that when i charge up my Ameo using the USB adaptor to get it to actually charge I:
Turn off bluetooth
Turn off GPRS / 3G data connection
Then i activate WM5torage
This means activesync doesnt try to load up and keep the screen on. I then put the device into standby so the screen isnt on and I managed to get it to charge up to 80% throughout the day.
Otherwise even with bluetooth on and the internet permanently connected i found the battery life to be very good (altho yesterday i could of sworn i charged it up overnight, got to work, played about with the new google maps application, GPS came on, etc, etc, downloaded a few maps, then battery life said 10%! Cant of charged it up the night before. Gonna keep my eye on this)
can I suggest big power users get this
http://www.clove.co.uk/viewProduct....Category=CE3E87A6-CAEF-4504-B115-1B3AA016C2E5
U20 5400mAh external battery/charger. about the size of an ipod and comes with connections to charge device.
Mine does the trick, lives in my bag and is 2.5 times our battery life=3.5 overall.
Should even extend confucious to 5pm.......
I might end up having to get one of those external chargers - but it's yet another thing to carry! Most of the time I can charge it overnight or at the office.
I think it's using the screen that is the problem - I have BT on all the time for my headset and 3G for my push email from my server but it's when I'm I'm browsing the internet / using google maps / using TomTom that drains the battery.
TomTom drains the battery faster than my car charger charges it :|
there are so many things you can do with Athena that it seams a shame not to do them all lol - especially as I've just found the FUP on W'n'W Pro is 3Gb not 1
Confucious said:
ITomTom drains the battery faster than my car charger charges it :|
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's weird - check the ampage of your car charger.
apd said:
That's weird - check the ampage of your car charger.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It was a cheap one that has worked with ll my other PDAs and SmartPhones but i have ordered the powered Brodit holder now so I'll wait to see if that's better.
Confucious said:
It was a cheap one that has worked with ll my other PDAs and SmartPhones but i have ordered the powered Brodit holder now so I'll wait to see if that's better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I ahve being using a Brodit one for a few weeks (albeit that it was the one from my Exec - I have only just received my Ameo Brodit holder) and it charged the battery no problem, even when using full brightness and internal GPS
My normal car charger charged my Universal OK - but fails with my Athena.
Today I didn't do a lot with my phone - listened to music on the way in with my BT headset, a few texts, push email running. Got it out at lunchtime and battery was dead - it was on red warning but turned itself off - I've been in meetings all mormning so haven't been able to charge the phone.
Something is wrong!
Could it be that the screen isn't turning itself off - I've noticed in the standard case it soesn't always when the keyboard isn't completely closed to the screen - but I am on default settings and the screen should turn itself off after a couple of mins inactivity anyway. Could WMP or something be keeping the screen lit?
Something is killing my battery anyone got any ideas?
I'm wondering if instead of the screen you have an app running in the background that doesn't go to sleep and continously taxes your CPU... could even be WMP... check with a taskmgr program to see what you have running or use another app to check your CPU load.
I haven't heard of the screen not dimming outside of Nav software, but saw plenty of misbehaving apps...
Battery saving while playing music
I have found "screenoff" an excellent help with this both for locking the screen (I now almost always leave the keyboard and case at home ) and for battery saving.
I'm beginning to think its that little screen which is soaking up the power.
Confucious said:
TomTom drains the battery faster than my car charger charges it :|
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine too, until...
I had an unbranded mini-USB car charger. When using TomTom, the effect was a net drain on battery power.
Today (and partly as a result of this thread), I tried the branded HTC charger that I had lying around (and that I thought would make no difference). Interestingly, I now have a net gain. (Started at 80%, drove around for an hour, charge is now 90%.)
Seems that all car chargers are not the same.
(Also the HTC charger has a natty, blue lit, logo; much better than the red LED.)
For your charging issues check out :
http://www.pocketpctechs.com/main~u...AE+cable+accessories~item~LSP%2DDUOADPT01.htm
It drastically improves the charging. I bought one then bought them for everywhere.
CPA said:
can I suggest big power users get this
http://www.easydevices.co.uk/pp/HTC...HTC_ADVANTAGE_EXTERNAL_EMERGENCY_CHARGER.html
U20 5400mAh external battery/charger. about the size of an ipod and comes with connections to charge device.
Mine does the trick, lives in my bag and is 2.5 times our battery life=3.5 overall.
Should even extend confucious to 5pm.......
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm looking at this one (am spending some time in our captial city next weekend) to extend the time between charges needed. Does this device resolve the 'pin out' problem and keep the phone charged? Has anyone else got testimonials about this? Its a not insignificant £40 so I don't want to bother if it doesn't solve the charge problem mentioned here and elsewhere with the differing pin outs. TIA
hammermedia said:
For your charging issues check out :
http://www.pocketpctechs.com/main~u...AE+cable+accessories~item~LSP%2DDUOADPT01.htm
It drastically improves the charging. I bought one then bought them for everywhere.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm looking at their product but I am confused. they specify that the advantage uses an 11 pin plug to charge when it appears to be a 5 pin USB mini-b connector. I don't know where they get the 11 pin connection from. also they SPECIFY that these adaptors can only be used with their Sync & charge retractable cable (thus implying that they are different from a std USB to mini-b 5 pin cable) this may be the case as I have tried charging my Blueant Z9 BT headset using a generic USB to micro (or mini-b 4 pin) and I get an overcurrent error on my USB port. It appears that the Blueant supplied cable is different.
Any Ideas on the HTC 11 pin cinnector referenced at http://www.pocketpctechs.com/images/items/LSP-DUOPRO01.jpg ?
Joe
Are you on the right page for HTC Advantage?
http://www.pocketpctechs.com/main~u...dvantage+Lil%27+Sync%AE+Cable+Accessories.htm
Hey guys,
First of, YES I USED THE SEARCH FUNCTION .
My battery life is absolute horrid right now, and I tried everything.
I tried out different roms, every radio, deleting programs, hard resetting tons of times. I even bought a new 1500 mAh battery but it was still crap.
Battery log says my device in standby mode with the screen turned of uses -70ma, when I turn my screen up it jumps to -320ma, and when idle on the screen for a few sec it goes to -200 ma, but when I browse through stuff again it goes to 3xxma again. When I surf on the internet it picks up to 450-500ma.
Now, this morning with the 1500 mAh battery fully charged I played a few games of XTRAKT, few texts, 1 hour of music listening and 10 minutes of being on Opera through a HSDPA connection. It was down to 45%.
This isn't the normal rate the battery goes down at right?
I use HDtweak to manage my connection and put it off after a minute so it isn't that I keep dataconnections open. I never use bluetooth or wifi either.
Could it possibly be that it's the charger of the device? I perhaps have the feeling that it doesn't put enough juice into the battery even though the green light led goes on to indicate it's full.
Some feedback would be much appreciated cause it's put me on the edge of selling my device, which would be a shame cause I'm really fond of it (except the battery ofcourse ).
Thanks in advance!
/a
P.s. I am from a pda background, so it isn't that I'm expecting too much of the device or comparing it to a normal cell.
May I ask what you searched, as there are 3 or 4 active threads on battery drain right now?
Hi
Had same problem.
Try to browse a storage card if its very slow You must format it and it will back to normal.
very strange but its working.
Cheers
AndyCr15 said:
May I ask what you searched, as there are 3 or 4 active threads on battery drain right now?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
General battery drain yes, not the possible issue of a charger though. If I'm wrong I stand corrected. .
Hi
Had same problem.
Try to browse a storage card if its very slow You must format it and it will back to normal.
very strange but its working.
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll try this, I have noticed that today my storage card won't be read by my computer, so perhaps this is a fix for the lousy battery issue.
antrak said:
Hey guys,
First of, YES I USED THE SEARCH FUNCTION .
My battery life is absolute horrid right now, and I tried everything.
I tried out different roms, every radio, deleting programs, hard resetting tons of times. I even bought a new 1500 mAh battery but it was still crap.
Battery log says my device in standby mode with the screen turned of uses -70ma, when I turn my screen up it jumps to -320ma, and when idle on the screen for a few sec it goes to -200 ma, but when I browse through stuff again it goes to 3xxma again. When I surf on the internet it picks up to 450-500ma.
Now, this morning with the 1500 mAh battery fully charged I played a few games of XTRAKT, few texts, 1 hour of music listening and 10 minutes of being on Opera through a HSDPA connection. It was down to 45%.
This isn't the normal rate the battery goes down at right?
I use HDtweak to manage my connection and put it off after a minute so it isn't that I keep dataconnections open. I never use bluetooth or wifi either.
Could it possibly be that it's the charger of the device? I perhaps have the feeling that it doesn't put enough juice into the battery even though the green light led goes on to indicate it's full.
Some feedback would be much appreciated cause it's put me on the edge of selling my device, which would be a shame cause I'm really fond of it (except the battery ofcourse ).
Thanks in advance!
/a
P.s. I am from a pda background, so it isn't that I'm expecting too much of the device or comparing it to a normal cell.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Antrak,
Touch HD has the longest battery life of any similar 'phone. See e.g.
http://www.pcauthority.com.au/News/1...-the-rest.aspx.
Either your battery is not charging correctly, as you say (try it via the PC USB cord?), or you have two dud batteries in a row (very unlikely) or you have a bug in your m/board. 70mA in standby is too high. It should be <20mA with only the 'phone on in standby mode, providing you are not moving from one cell to another all the time, and have decent signal.
One other suggestion. Drain the battery completely to zero, then recharge it to max. This should reset the internal battery meter. But don't do this too often, as it ages the battery faster.
If none of these work, return the 'phone for a m/board replacement undere guarantee.
I have the same problem... After charging for 10 hours, my batt shows 55% only.. and last 1hr on STANDbY!!!
IMAGINE! charge for 10hrs juz to get to use for 1 hr.. im disappointed by the batt.. im not sure if HTC is gona let me exchange with a new one or do I have to buy a new batt..
try check your sync..its active all the time or not..
if yes..
find the threat to make a fake account for sync, so you can active it manually.
so your battery will stand more longer,
about charging..
me also facing the same problem..
need to change it more longer to get full battery,
but
if i change in my car,
no issue
very fast
i thing charger issue..
but i bought original set..
??????????????????
Okay I've charged my HD through my pc with a USB cable and formatted my SD card like a other user said. Gonna see how it holds out today. It could very well be that some chargers have issues.
My experience with the Touch HD says that when charged with a USB attached to a computer the battery life is a lot shorter than charged through a wall socket.
jouh said:
My experience with the Touch HD says that when charged with a USB attached to a computer the battery life is a lot shorter than charged through a wall socket.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is always going to be the case. Quickest way to charge your device will always be through your wall socket and with your device turned off!!
Same battery issue.
i recently purchased a new touch HD (T8285 telstra version) and am experiencing the same horrible battery issues. it takes more time to charge it, than i get use out of it.
i've tried multiple batteries, and am in the process of trying different ROMs.
antrak: any update on that last post? did the SD format help?
Fallen Spartan said:
This is always going to be the case. Quickest way to charge your device will always be through your wall socket and with your device turned off!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Indeed, here's an illustration...
Image1:
Charging via USB takes longer. Consumption and therefore charge current is erratic after the battery level reaches 50% when charging via USB on my HD. So the battery fills up to about 60% of its capacity by the time when the battery level is reported to be 100% and charging stops.
Image2:
When charging with an AC adapter this is not happening and the capacity is fully utilized. This is also quicker.
Fallen Spartan said:
This is always going to be the case. Quickest way to charge your device will always be through your wall socket and with your device turned off!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's strange. For me it's quicker if the device is turned on. When it's off it takes around 8-10 hours to charge but when it's on it's alot quicker.
trice1921 said:
That's strange. For me it's quicker if the device is turned on. When it's off it takes around 8-10 hours to charge but when it's on it's alot quicker.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hmmm, I don't know how this is possible?
If your device is on there is always power outage especially with programmes running, whilst if your device is off, there is no power drainage so device should charge quicker.
What rom are you using? software installed?
Fallen Spartan said:
hmmm, I don't know how this is possible?
If your device is on there is always power outage especially with programmes running, whilst if your device is off, there is no power drainage so device should charge quicker.
What rom are you using? software installed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Latest official rom with alot of software installed. But it doens't make sence to me either. It's logical for something to charge faster when it's using no power (off) then when it is using power (on).
Combine battery threads ???
Hi to Moderators,
There are now several threads on the HD forum on battery and charging issues.
Can these be combined into one place and stickied, so we can get a clear picture?
Current threads are this one, plus:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=474531
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=506658
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=480618
I have a gut feeling from what I'm reading, that HTC have had a bad batch of batteries or charger circuits in the HD - in which case the best starting point is to call their service points and ask for help/replacement, instead of spending lots of time on other remedies. The symptoms described have lots of commonalities, and the HD is normally an excellent beastie for battery usage.
Thanks for all your help, ladies and gents! Your work is much appreciated.
nerdcore said:
i recently purchased a new touch HD (T8285 telstra version) and am experiencing the same horrible battery issues. it takes more time to charge it, than i get use out of it.
i've tried multiple batteries, and am in the process of trying different ROMs.
antrak: any update on that last post? did the SD format help?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Heya,
Don't know what it is but my battery life increased a tad. Am running Dutty's X3.0 with the 1.32.x.x. radio. Watching a 1 hour xvid dvd rip (no conversion) in coreplayer on full backlight with no HSDPA on, wifi or bluetooth takes away 20% of my battery, which is acceptable.
Don't think it's the SD card format though, it might be that I never have the activesync process on anymore by setting it to manual update and closing it (it otherwise keeps running.)
/a
I am trying to compile a large list of tips and tricks that we users can use to extend the life of our small batteries.
List is here:
http://android-simplicity.blogspot.com/2009/08/bag-of-tricks-1-increase-battery-life.html
On-Going Power saving List
1. Under-clock your cpu(for root users only). Download->over clocking widget->set cpu speed to lowest value
2. Turn off GPS
3. Reduce the number of start up apps
4. Restart phone
5. Lower screen brightness
6. Turn off Wi-fi when you are not around any wifi networks
7. Turn off 3G Mobile Data Network - Settings--->Wireless Controls--->Mobile Networks and check the box that says "Use Only 2G Networks.
8. Disable auto Data Sync
9. Download and install "Power Manager"
10. Disable back ground apps - [~JDBDogg]
11. Turn off keyboard backlight (for Dream/G1 only for obvious reasons) with Backlight Off app. Only works on rooted phones. [~Chahk]
12. Turn off any unnecessary noises or vibrations, such as for on-screen keyboard and games. [~AdamPI]
13. Make sure your firmware and apps are up to date, efficiency may be improved. [~AdamPI]
14. Use headphones. [~AdamPI]
15. Turn off Bluetooth. [~AdamPI]
16. [~Yours goes here]
If you have any tricks that you use to get the most time juice out of your phone, please share them to the rest of us. Thanks.
Disable background apps
Turn off keyboard backlight (for Dream/G1 only for obvious reasons) with Backlight Off app. Only works on rooted phones.
Chahk said:
Turn off keyboard backlight (for Dream/G1 only for obvious reasons) with Backlight Off app. Only works on rooted phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
nice, one ! didnt think of that~
Lower the time it takes for the screen to time out.
Id also say take off any widgets you may have but i guess that falls underneath the "disable background apps" category
Bluetooth isn't mentioned.
Turn off any unnecessary noises or vibrations, such as for on-screen keyboard and games.
Make sure your firmware and apps are up to date, efficiency may be improved.
I'd guess using headphones is better than the speaker, plus no-one on the bus wants to hear your "music".
Has anyone tested decoding efficiency of video and audio codecs? AAC saves space, but does it use more battery than mp3?
up to 15
AdamPI said:
Bluetooth isn't mentioned.
Turn off any unnecessary noises or vibrations, such as for on-screen keyboard and games.
Make sure your firmware and apps are up to date, efficiency may be improved.
I'd guess using headphones is better than the speaker, plus no-one on the bus wants to hear your "music".
Has anyone tested decoding efficiency of video and audio codecs? AAC saves space, but does it use more battery than mp3?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Now thats thinking out of the box. Thanks AdamPI
We have now 15 on the list. Lets see how long this can go~
Someone should do a test using all of these tricks and do a comparison, although it will be a very boring phone at this point with everything off.
Don't use a ROM that requires a linux-swap Partition
This causes the phone to die faster because the sd card is constantly being acessed
jf4888 said:
Don't use a ROM that requires a linux-swap Partition
This causes the phone to die faster because the sd card is constantly being acessed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SD Cards are so cheap these days that you shoudn't worry about damaging them. In a weird way though, this advice does make sense. Swap = more apps are being kept in memory, thus more work being performed by the phone, which translates to higher power consumption.
But then again, following this logic a similar advice would be to not run any apps at all. Or better yet, just shut your phone off! Maybe then it will last a full day on a single charge
Seriously though, if you're worried about damaging your phone, read up on Lithium-Ion/Polymer batteries and how to prolong their lifespan. The main points are:
Don't let them get too hot. Heat damages battery cells and cause them to lose their capacity.
Deep discharge cycles (letting the battery drain before fully charging them) kill these batteries fast. LiIon/LiPolymer batteries like to be "topped off" once the level gets to 60-70% mark.
Discharge cycles can improve state-of-charge estimation, so only perform those when the battery meter goes out of whack and doesn't tell the charge level properly. This doesn't happen often.
They don't suffer from the "memory" and overcharge issues that used to plague batteries using older technologies (NiCad/NiMH), so it's safe to keep the phone plugged in whenever you can.
The "first-time cycle" is a myth left over from Nickel-based batteries. This means you don't need to charge the batter for 8 hours the first time you use it.
Do not use "fast chargers" since their usage can decrease the lifespan of the battery.
Get an app that turns off your data network completely (like WiSyncPlus). Not just "use 2G only" but COMPLETELY. I can go a whole weekend, with normal use, without charging my phone if I need to. (From one Fri 6am to Sun 6pm give or take was my best)
The one I use (WiSyncPlus, there are others I guess) turns off the network automatically when I unplug the charger from my phone. Txt msgs piggy back the cellular network so no issue there, otherwise, if I want to jump on the internet or check the weather, I hit the toggle switch on my Home screen...in ~3secs I'm all set again. Toggle back off when finished.
Best $3 by far I've spent on an app for my G1.
i use APNdroid for that
No one mentioned using a ROM that allows changes to the CPU scaling.
I'm on Cyanogen 4.1.2.1 and I have it scaled from 245 to 527 with the CPU only jumping up to the next clock speed when it needs it.
So, most of the time, my phone is on 245 and it clocks to 383 and then 527 as needed. I had overclock widget set so it showed me the current clock speed. Once I was comfortable with the frequency and load under which it changed speeds, I removed the widget from the desktop.
I use my phone a lot and it lasts a full day easily.
if youre using a hero rom there is an option to completely turn off mobile networks so there is no data connecion at all.
i have to go with
turn the phone off
get a car charger
spare battery or extended one
How much percentage does your battery use in standby with edge and airplane mode (no connections)
Kumar's Rom V2.1 Premium
Radio: 2.11.50.20
Standby with only edge and I loose 10% in 8 hours.
Standby airplane mode I loose 8% in 8 hours.
Leave your phone on standby all night and post your results
dy2k said:
How much percentage does your battery use in standby with edge and airplane mode (no connections)
Kumar's Rom V2.1 Premium
Radio: 2.11.50.20
Standby with only edge and I loose 10% in 8 hours.
Standby airplane mode I loose 8% in 8 hours.
Leave your phone on standby all night and post your results
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll test it tonight and let you how. However, I would expect it to drain slower than that in airplane mode, especially if the screen is left off. I put my TP2 in airplane mode to do the same test back when I first got my HD2, and the battery lasted for over 17 days before dying
Yeah.
I think I shall alternate radios and post results. But I don't think I would get different results if its in airplane mode due that it won't be looking for a signal. But who knows maybe it makes a difference.
I would think it would last a very long time, maybe over a week between charges if it was in airplane mode, and in sleep mode the entire time.
In sleep mode the CPU should be in a suspended mode, maybe waking occasionally to check for things like upcoming appointments. The only thing really consuming power would be the RAM. the type of RAM could extend the battery even more. DRAM has to be constantly refreshed, so you have the RAM chips and memory controller eating up power refreshing it constantly. If its SRAM, it can run for a VERY long time on very little power. I'm not sure if the HD2 had DRAM or SRAM, likely its DRAM though
I have a 4MB PCMCIA SRAM card that can hold its contents for a few years using the small CR2025 button cell in the card. DRAM would probably drain a button cell in a few hours.
Ok...some interesting results:
I tested this last night by charging my HD2 all the way to 100% just before bed, and then letting it sit on my desk all night in airplane mode, with the screen off....
7 hours later, the batt had drained 7%
As d0ug mentioned, this is FAR faster of a drain that we should expect when running the phone with all the radios completely off like that...in fact, it's about 4x the rate of drain (percentage of total capacity vs time) that I got on my TP2 when running the same experiment.
So, my conclusion is that there's obviously something on the phone that's running down the battery besides the usual suspects, and nothing obvious I can see or think of offhand.
ahh thanks for the info. Hmmm that throws the 490 hrs in standby that is advertised of the window. But with the 1 ghz processor I am guessing 100 hrs in standby is good. Also I read that some HD2s drain slower after 50%
dy2k said:
ahh thanks for the info. Hmmm that throws the 490 hrs in standby that is advertised of the window. But with the 1 ghz processor I am guessing 100 hrs in standby is good. Also I read that some HD2s drain slower after 50%
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It still seems too fast to me, for the drain when the radios is off. I'm going to repeat the experiment for the next couple of nights...I think tonight I'll take the SD card out (as well as leaving it in airplane mode) and see if that makes any difference.
What raises the red flag for me is that the rate of drain I saw last night isn't significantly less than what I see when I leave the radios on all night, and in full 3G
Sounds to me like the processor is not going completely to sleep, When i say to sleep i literally mean the processor clock being stopped. Ideally that's what it should be doing until something like an incoming call, message, appointment, etc triggers an interrupt to wake the processor
As we already know from the overclocking util that exists, the HD2 does not run 1ghz all the time. The processor speed steps depending on demand. when its on but idle the processor clock is suspected to have dropped down somewhere in the 100-200mhz range, but a bug in that software does not display the actual processor speed in the lowest range.
I wonder if the processor is constantly on at that 100-200mhz rate even while asleep? or its just some very power hungry ram being refreshed? 576mb is a lot of ram cells to be refreshing several times a second to keep the data in them valid.
d0ug said:
Sounds to me like the processor is not going completely to sleep, When i say to sleep i literally mean the processor clock being stopped. Ideally that's what it should be doing until something like an incoming call, message, appointment, etc triggers an interrupt to wake the processor
As we already know from the overclocking util that exists, the HD2 does not run 1ghz all the time. The processor speed steps depending on demand. when its on but idle the processor clock is suspected to have dropped down somewhere in the 100-200mhz range, but a bug in that software does not display the actual processor speed in the lowest range.
I wonder if the processor is constantly on at that 100-200mhz rate even while asleep? or its just some very power hungry ram being refreshed? 576mb is a lot of ram cells to be refreshing several times a second to keep the data in them valid.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I suspect the same, that the proc or memory are still drawing a surprisingly large amount of current when the phone is "idle". I don't know if it's also possible that there's something keeping power fed to the SD card at that time, tonight's test will confirm or deny that theory.
Wherever the draw is, it's obviously something unique to this phone, so I guess it could even be related to the way the hardware drivers are handling *something*..??
sirphunkee said:
I suspect the same, that the proc or memory are still drawing a surprisingly large amount of current when the phone is "idle". I don't know if it's also possible that there's something keeping power fed to the SD card at that time, tonight's test will confirm or deny that theory.
Wherever the draw is, it's obviously something unique to this phone, so I guess it could even be related to the way the hardware drivers are handling *something*..??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The results of your test will be interesting, but i highly suspect that its not the SD card. there should be very little current draw from an idle SD card. Flash memory needs no power to retain its contents, so the only power an idle SD card should be consuming is whatever is needed to power the flash controller enough to sit and wait for a read/write command.
Of course that doesn't mean that the firmware on the controller of particular SD cards isn't faulty causing a huge power draw, of even an installed app on the phone constantly reading/writing something on the SD card.
d0ug said:
Of course that doesn't mean that the firmware on the controller of particular SD cards isn't faulty causing a huge power draw, of even an installed app on the phone constantly reading/writing something on the SD card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bingo and bingo, that's exactly what I want to eliminate first before looking for other causes. By chance, is there a way to look at the actual current draw on the batt in real time?
sirphunkee said:
Bingo and bingo, that's exactly what I want to eliminate first before looking for other causes. By chance, is there a way to look at the actual current draw on the batt in real time?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sure, you would need to find some way to get some jumper wires in between the battery and the HD2 so that you could put a multimeter in between the battery and HD2. then you could see the MA being drawn from the battery in realtime on the
you might be able to get creative with a piece of paper with a layer of foil on each side that doesnt touch eachother. you would insert this between the HD2 contact and battery for only one of the contacts. you could then use alligator clips to connect the multimeter by clamping the paper, but insulating the opposite side of each clip so that you dont create a short that can route around the meter
There used to be a battery monitor software i used on my old wizard that would also show the ma being consumed, updated every 10 sec or so. I dont remember what the software was called and im pretty sure it was probably hardware specific for the omap chipset in that phone
d0ug said:
sure, you would need to find some way to get some jumper wires in between the battery and the HD2 so that you could put a multimeter in between the battery and HD2. then you could see the MA being drawn from the battery in realtime on the
you might be able to get creative with a piece of paper with a layer of foil on each side that doesnt touch eachother. you would insert this between the HD2 contact and battery for only one of the contacts. you could then use alligator clips to connect the multimeter by clamping the paper, but insulating the opposite side of each clip so that you dont create a short that can route around the meter
There used to be a battery monitor software i used on my old wizard that would also show the ma being consumed, updated every 10 sec or so. I dont remember what the software was called and im pretty sure it was probably hardware specific for the omap chipset in that phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL ok yes I guess that's one way to achieve that I confess I was more just hoping that the batt's circuitry registered/reported the draw in way that could be queried through a driver, etc. I think I'd seen the same app you're referring to back when I had my wizard, but other than using it to maybe point us in the right direction it probably wouldn't be of any use otherwise on this hardware.
So, I did run the test last night w/o the SD card installed, and it actually looks like it did indeed drain slower that way...only about 2% (+/- .5) over the same 7 hour period. However, this just means I want to go back and test it a little more thoroughly that way now, and then with the card in again, just to repeat/validate these results.
However, if it does indeed bear out that the background drain is significantly less with the card removed...I guess that might mean that having the card inserted prevents the proc from idling down as much..?? Not sure of the best way to test/isolate that.
sirphunkee said:
LOL ok yes I guess that's one way to achieve that I confess I was more just hoping that the batt's circuitry registered/reported the draw in way that could be queried through a driver, etc. I think I'd seen the same app you're referring to back when I had my wizard, but other than using it to maybe point us in the right direction it probably wouldn't be of any use otherwise on this hardware.
So, I did run the test last night w/o the SD card installed, and it actually looks like it did indeed drain slower that way...only about 2% (+/- .5) over the same 7 hour period. However, this just means I want to go back and test it a little more thoroughly that way now, and then with the card in again, just to repeat/validate these results.
However, if it does indeed bear out that the background drain is significantly less with the card removed...I guess that might mean that having the card inserted prevents the proc from idling down as much..?? Not sure of the best way to test/isolate that.
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Yeah now that I think of it, that utility was also an overclocking util for the wizard, so it was most like only going to work on the wizard, or at least only phones using that same omap chip.
Interesting the SD card consumes that much power, are you using the stock 16gig or another card? I wonder if different cards produce different results? Im still using my stock 16gig here, been thinking bout upgrading to a class 6, but i kinda want to get a 32gig card too, but those aren't available in class 6 yet.
d0ug said:
Yeah now that I think of it, that utility was also an overclocking util for the wizard, so it was most like only going to work on the wizard, or at least only phones using that same omap chip.
Interesting the SD card consumes that much power, are you using the stock 16gig or another card? I wonder if different cards produce different results? Im still using my stock 16gig here, been thinking bout upgrading to a class 6, but i kinda want to get a 32gig card too, but those aren't available in class 6 yet.
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Yes, stock 16GB card. Although, I'd never reformatted it since I bought the phone, but I did last night before I pulled it out for the test. I'm watching the drain through the day today to see if that has any effect during normal use, for now anyway. I'll be running the overnight test a few more times w and w/o the card.
Ah interesting. Last night I charged my phone to 100% and left the 3G on and it drained about 10% in 8 hours which is the same on edge. I also notice that when I used the 3g in the morning I saw the 3g icon on top connecting to the network. I am guessing it goes to standby when not being used for a time. I also switched from 3g to edge everytime I wanted to use the internet but am considering to just leave it on 3g due that I think it consumes more power changing the connection everytime I want to use 3g.
Well I guess we need a tweak to put the processor to real standby when the phone's screen has been off for a long time.
I usually charge it before I go to sleep and not leave it on the charger. When I wake up about 6.5 hours later it usually reads 97%. So it drains 3% in over 6 hours. Not too bad. I'm not in airline mode but my data is off since I'm on prepaid. Wifi and phone are on but I think wifi switches off when it goes to standby. My activesync is also set to manual so no downloading during the night.
buzz killington what radio and rom do you use?
I'm using the stock rom and radio without the update.
Rom: 2.10.531.1 (82076)
Radio: 2.08.50.08_2
I should probably add, when I had the activesync on, I'd wake up and it'd have 93%, so it seems activesync uses quite a bit of power.
buzz killington said:
I'm using the stock rom and radio without the update.
Rom: 2.10.531.1 (82076)
Radio: 2.08.50.08_2
I should probably add, when I had the activesync on, I'd wake up and it'd have 93%, so it seems activesync uses quite a bit of power.
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Hey buzz...you were using activesync over wifi, do I have that correct?